Category: Hector Collectors

I’ve written previously about The Hector Collectors – here, when they part of a hugely enjoyable night at the Old Hairdresser’s in January 2016 and again last year, here, when I gave a deserved plug to a free release of old material they had put out on bandcamp.

The boys are back in town, with a recently released single and an album due out later this month, with the superb title of “Remember the Hector Collectors? ..You wont believe what they sound like now!”

The mainstays of the band are Iain and Adam Smith (no relation) who burst on to the Glasgow music scene as long ago as 2001 with their first home recorded album Straight Outta Comprehensive. It’s a record that drew understandable comparisons with early Half Man Half Biscuit thanks to its lo-fi and basic production and some wonderfully written piss-takes and/or tributes of the local and national scenes with such song titles as The Day The Supernaturals Went To The 13th Note, Steven Pastel’s Blues, Gie’s A Blast O’Wonderwall Mate, and Talking To Another Psychopath.

The live shows, in their own words, were erratic and gained them more notoriety than fame. Unsurprisingly, John Peel had time for them.

They initially split up around 2004 in the wake of the release of a new 7″ EP with band members then going off to
pursue other projects, including The Just Joans, Danananakroyd, the Plimptons and Camera Obscura. Over the past decade or som they have reformed sporadically for occasional gigs and recordings….but 2018 is going to be different.

Up until now, all the albums have been digital releases but the new release, on Puzzled Ardvark, will be on vinyl, in a limited run of 200, at the bargain price of £10….(evidence that, no matter what format we choose to buy our music, we always pay over the odds).

Just like HMHB’s most recent releases, the rough edges are no longer in evidence and there’s a fine pop tune with a chrus tgar will have your toes tapping and you singing along in the shower.

The album will be released on 29 September and can be ordered in advance right here.

Here’s the promo:-

The current lineup of the band sees Adam and Iain backed up on drums by Gavin Dunbar (Camera Obscura) and on bass by Joe Greatorex (The Hussy’s, The Martial Arts, Colin’s Godson). They’ll be playing live again soon….I intend to be there.

JC

Without exaggeration, I get up to 100 emails every day from singers, bands and publicists asking me to consider a review of a single or album. I do feel bad that the majority of them end up being unread as I simply don’t have the time to go through each of them – there’s a sense of catholic guilt overcomes me every time as I know that in many of the cases it will be a DIY approach from someone simply looking for a leg-up to a wider audience. I used to reply as politely as I could to such requests on the basis that the sort of market they were usually trying to reach wasn’t likely to be what I suspect are typical T(n)VV readers; I often added that if a 50-something was to turn round a recommend a new young singer or band then it would surely do their wider credibility a bit of damage when their demographic was so much different.

But every now and then, a word or two or whole paragraphs will jump out at me that makes me sit up and take notice as was the case with this:-

Dear Vinyl Villain,

The Hector Collectors are an indiepop group from Glasgow, Scotland, who started in 2000AD and were played on John Peel’s show a few times back in the day.

From 2004 – 2008, they recorded tracks for an album planned to be known as ‘The Boring Album’ , which was conceived as an ambient lofi indiepop record recreating the feeling of being bored at home in the UK in the mid 90s. The sessions were never released at the time due to other stuff getting in the way, and in the meantime things like chillwave and hauntology and all that happened in the late 00s/early 10s which seemed to share similar aims aesthetics.

Now, in early 2017, long after anyone would care and with the world gripped by a widespread political engagement that has woken most from their vaporwave haze, The Hector Collectors (who are still going and plan to release a proper new album later this year) have decided the time is right to polish up those mid 00s recordings and sneak them out so that anyone who cares can hear their prescient but also now double dated take on formless 20/30 something suburban nostalgia, a movement we would have called ‘L Y N D H U R S T W A V E’ (after Nicholas Lyndhurst) if we had been movers and shakers during Obama’s first term.

Please hear, download for Free (and consider for coverage) the finished album and our bandcamp here if that sounds like it might be your kind of thing:

I’m not sure if AJ picked up on the blog from the fact that I’ve been known to feature bands from round these parts or if he had seen my previous mention of The Hector Collectors when a live performance at the start of 2016 had lifted my dark mood. Either way it doesn’t matter, because I happen to really enjoy their lowfi and occasionally shambolic music and after two successive days of the neatness and perfection of Radiohead it really does seem appropriate to go to the other extreme.

What’s not to love about a band who come up with song titles such as Stephen Pastel’s Blues, The Day The Supernaturals Went to the 13th Note, Your Nazi Boyfriend, Gary Numan Needs Another Hit and Unemployed In Motherwell.

Or, in the instance of the free album on offer today, She’s Lost The Remote Control, a quite wonderful tribute/piss take of Joy Division.

And really folks, what’s not to love about a band who know that above all else who clearly know it’s about having fun and enjoyment in what you’re doing and taking your audience along with you.

2016 has, without any question, been a terrible year so far and events have cast something of a collective black cloud above the heads of the blogging cognoscenti. The thing is, I don’t think any of those who are being mourned would want us to spend all of our time sitting in our homes recalling musical memories when there are things happening out there in sweaty clubs and venues that are worthy of our attention and which have the ability to make us feel good and happy again.

Last Friday night, I went to a gig where three bands were on the bill in what was (unfairly and very tongue-in-cheek) described on the night as a fleapit of a venue. None of the bands were exactly brand new – indeed they have been going for a number of years and all have a reasonably faithful if small fanbase – but what they were doing was coming together on one bill on the basis of all having initially begun life in the same town some 15 miles south-east of Glasgow and to support the launch of a 6-track EP, on cassette, with two songs from each band. They each played for around 45 minutes and with the exception of maybe five or six songs from the middle band whom I had caught live twice before, the music was all new to me.

And I came away firmly believing that it was a gig that will not be surpassed in terms of sheer enjoyment again this year.

The three bands on the bill, in order of appearance, were GUMS!, The JustJoans and The Hector Collectors and they have the town of Motherwell in common (maybe I should mention that Motherwell is the next stop on the train line after Bellshill which, in this previous posting, I mentioned had a good call on being the epicentre of indie-pop in Scotland. The thing is Motherwell is by far the bigger of the two towns).

The bandcamp page for GUMS! reveals they have been making music since 2012 but all of the band members have been in previous groups that achieved a fair degree of cult status in and around Glasgow over a previous fair few years. They were a four-piece on the night (although at full strength they have six members) with Martin Smith on acoustic guitar, Jack Taylor on bass, Nora Noonan on drums and Joe Greatorex on bass – with lead vocal duties shared by Martin, Jack and Nora. They delivered a set which musically reminded me of my teenage love for the sorts of fast and energetic post-punk/new wave pop that came from the likes of Buzzcocks and The Undertones but that lyrically was as amusing and enthralling as the great Aidan Moffat at his most playful and wistful best. It was the perfect start to the evening as their infectious energy and enthusiasm was picked up immediately by the 100 or so strong audience.

It was the presence of The Just Joans that had caused me to go along on the night. They have, for many years, been a very firm favourite of my dear mate and gig-going companion Aldo and he was dismayed to discover that this gig was to coincide with a long-planned weekend break he was taking in Madrid. I said that I would go along and make sure I got him a copy of the 6-track EP…oh and I suppose I should confess for the record that, in one of those crazy small world coincidences that occasionally happen, one of the band members works in the same office as me.

They have been around for the best part of a decade and indeed played at the Indietracks festival as far back as 2008. They have had a number of personnel changes over the years and are currently a six-piece with David Pope on acoustic guitar and vocals, Katie Pope on vocals, Chris Elkin on guitar, Fraser Ford on bass, Doog Cameron on keyboards, and Jason Sweeney on drums, the last-named of who was playing his first gig with the band. I describe this lot as ‘shindie’ with the first two letters being short for shambling…..but I don’t use the word in any derogatory way.

Every one of them is a talented musician in their own rights and where the GUMS have their musical roots in the late 70s, the JJs are firmly ensconced in the indie sound of the 80s and in particular C86. David is the main songwriter and his subject matters are very reflective and observant of where he and his bandmates live, play and work. His unique vocal style and delivery will never get him past the audition stage of any TV talent show – let’s just say you will never mistake him for being from anywhere other than his home town – but it is absolutely perfect for this sort of music. You only need to glance at some of the song titles – Some Boys Are Bigger Than Others, I Won’t Survive, Hey Boy…You’re Oh So Sensitive, If You Don’t Pull and I Love Me, Who Do You Love? – to realise that gentle, self-deprecating and whimsical humour are at the heart of the Just Joans. They have garnered a cult following that is well-earned and their set made everyone’s grins all the wider.

Finally, there was The Hector Collectors, a band I knew of only by reputation as having formed initially about 15 years ago only to break-up with band members going on to form other groups before deciding to reform (of sorts) and then in the past few months have become a bit more active with them being the prime driving force in putting on the gig and recording the EP. Like the others on the bill, they have had band members come and go and in the studio can have as many as seven members; but the four musicians who played last Friday were Adam Smith (vocals), Ian Smith (guitar), Joe Greatorex (bass) and Gavin Dunbar (drums). They were utterly brilliant from start to finish with a set that came across as a mix of The Fall, Half Man Half Biscuit, BMX Bandits, Arab Strap and well let’s be frank, GUMS! and The Just Joans.

All of which got me thinking.

As I said at the outset, it’s been a lousy start to 2016 in terms of a number of musical icons dying or ending up in a hospital in Ireland very unlikely to recover. But we really shouldn’t be wallowing in self-pity for those who are no more, albeit it is right that we keep carrying a torch in their memory. Last Friday demonstrated just how uplifting music can be and how musicians, singers and bands have an uncanny ability to surprise, delight, enthrall and above all else entertain. No matter where you live – New York, London, Paris or Munich; Seattle, Sydney, Singapore, Stockholm or Stenhousemuir; Tampa, Tasmania, Tallin, Tupelo or Torquay; just get yourself out there and be part of an audience. You won’t regret it (unless you happen to be catching Nickelback)

I won’t post any of the songs from the new EP (my cassette is #14/100) as they are available to purchase from here.